Former professional cyclist Bradley Wiggins has criticised sports like Tennis for being too uptight with how they run their events.
Wiggins said that he once got drunk at Wimbledon, the oldest and most prestigious tennis championship in the world.
Wiggins said that sports with elitist tendencies need to strip themselves back to the bare basics and not get so wrapped up in their own traditions.
“The governing bodies of certain sports let themselves down because there’s too much pomp and tradition in them,” Wiggins said on TalkSport.
“I think the class system is alive and well in certain sports and I think there is too much snobbery attached to certain sports.
“You’ve got to strip sports back to its barest root and whether that’s picking up a bike and just letting yourself go and seeing where you end up or kicking a football – we’ve seen this famous photo of a little boy kicking a ball in Argentina with a carrier bag and [Lionel] Messi on the back.
“At what point do you say certain things are acceptable. I’ve been to Wimbledon and I got drunk there and it’s not acceptable. There’s a lot of pomp and tradition and at what point do we let the tradition go and let it organically grow and take it to the masses.”
Wiggins previously said that he considered turning down his knighthood in 2013 and that he wasn’t a fan of all the hoopla that surrounded his coronation.
“I must be the only person with a knighthood in the country sat here in a Stone Island jumper. It’s a bit pompous, it adds to the toxicity of people—it’s 2018. I’d had enough of the whole thing anyway in 2012, and I didn’t really want it.
“I remember saying I was doubting if I was going to take it. I didn’t really want it, and I didn’t feel right taking it with where I was from and my background. I asked my nan, who said you’re stupid and your grandad would turn over in his grave if you didn’t take it.”
